Wherewithal in Everyday Ramblings

Daffodils in the lilac garden a few days back. The trees are starting to bloom and lovely as they are the pollen count is off the charts. But they are so beautiful. Even in the rain.

Cauliflower starts are everywhere this year. I got mine in this week. Today I got basic Swiss chard, spinach and rainbow carrot starts and a dianthus in an almost fuchsia color. We were a week early at the rural garden center last Saturday. The people that work at my local center are so nice. The guy (masked, I might add) told me this morning I could call and see when they are getting their eggplant and basil in if my seeds are a no go.

Mrs. Sherlock was even more tired than me and so we decided not to walk, we went to the garden center, the grocery, and a locally owned bakery as our big adventure today. I got to hang with Frieda a bit. Everywhere we went the staff were wearing masks. The customers were everywhere on the continuum.

I have a new student, who is our League of Women Voters Unit Leader, that I found out this week has just gotten her first community garden plot. She has a house that is surrounded by big trees and gets basically no sun. She says she was a master gardener in Colorado where she came from but that it is different here. I can’t wait to talk to her more about her plot. It is in a different garden than mine with full sun.

There continues to be this whole paradigm shift about fitness going on out there and one of the things I have been learning about is the connective tissue throughout the body. And how important it is to keep mobile and hydrated. And one of the things that is indicative of this is the whole idea of hopping.

In Bodyweight class we have been doing these spinning hops with both feet. I can get ¾ of the way round. My teachers can do a full 360˚ turn, but they are young and experienced. I am chuffed at what I can do. And the odd thing is that they are fun. I am conditioned enough that they are fun.

My morning students sometimes get to hear what I am doing in the Bodyweight class, and they wanted me to demonstrate the hop spin, which I did, and we got into this long, involved discussion about hopscotch yesterday. None of us could remember the rules. I was mad for hopscotch as a girl.

It now seems that it would be an excellent activity for those of us who are no longer girls. If we worked up to it with drills on balance, hopping, bending over on one leg (I see single legged deadlifts in my future). We also talked about skipping and jumping rope. Both pretty intense activities for a bunch of old ladies. Certainly not going there in class.

If I moved my birdbath, I could probably draw a hopscotch grid in my patio well. Now that would keep the squirrels away from the finch feeder. There was discussion on drawing one out on the sidewalk to see who found it irresistible as they passed by. Kes had a neighbor draw one out in the alley and it seems it was more likely adults, stopping and hopping than kids.

We get out of the habit of hopping as an adult and our tissues reflect that.

Anyway, all I learned in the gym all those years, to help deal with my genetic sweat gland situation is coming in handy now. Who knew? A chronic condition can be a blessing in unexpected ways even on days where all it seems is a slog.

This is of course all ephemeral compared to the suffering going on out there in the world that is so visibly reflected in our news.

I was listening to The Daily a few days back and they had on a subject matter expert and were asking him, the whole program was asking him what he thought might happen, how things would unfold, the different possible scenarios. As I was listening, I realized that a heck of a lot of what I am hearing these days is that sort of thing.

It is like there has been a change. I remember the news used to be, well, telling us what was going on and the history of what was going on, (if it was more expansive). Now it seems there is this whole industry that we are hooked into to tell us what certain individuals think is going on means, and how they think it will all pan out. And we pay them for that, in ads and subscriptions.

Nobody knows. But I guess it is human nature to want to know. Especially in uncertain times. Like now.

I hope for us all that for today we have the small reassurances we need to do what needs to be done and the compassion to cut ourselves a break when we can’t find the wherewithal. So many of us are way too hard on ourselves for small things that don’t really matter in the face of so much sadness and suffering.

Something I need to keep in mind as I face a week that presently appears overwhelming in scope as I do the best I can to get everything done before I run run run away to the beach on Thursday.

Ah…the beach.

Last updated March 21, 2022